Catching Up Vol 1: Dexter

Wow. It's been awhile since I've put anything up here...but not for a lack of things to say. Motivation was the problem, but I've been watching a lot of TV, gearing up for the return of my favorites (The Office and 30 Rock start up again tomorrow night!) and catching up on a couple shows I've never seen and feel guilt and embarrassment every time I have to admit it.

So, here's a rundown of what I've been watching and why anyone in or out of their right mind should do the same.

Dexter: Good god in heaven, this is one of the best shows I've seen in a long time. Featuring Michael C. Hall of 6 Feet Under fame, this Showtime offering jumped to CBS to re-run season 1. This is what initially caught my attention...we're not likely to see Weeds hit the "big 3" in primetime anytime soon, so when something bubbles up from cable, I'm curious.
Thank god I decided to watch. This is likely the most compelling, innovative, interesting, (insert superlative adjective here) television since I watched Damages last fall on F/X. The story is basically of a closeted serial killer (Dexter) who has integrated himself into "normal" life seamlessly. Yes, he still kills. But he kills "the right people." ("What?" you might say...exactly...like I said, compelling). In his non-serial killing hours, he works as a bloodspatter analyst for the police department where his sister (but remember Dexter's adopted...that's important), Deb, has just gotten a promotion from vice (where she was posing as a hooker) to homicide. Deb does not know he's a killer. He's also in a serious relationship with Rita who was violently, brutally sexually abused by her husband who is just on the verge of being released from prison. Rita has two kids that love Dexter as he does a lot of child care and basic "watching out" for Rita's whole clan. Why does Dexter like Rita? Because she doesn't want sex due to her personal trauma. Intrigued yet? Oh, you should be. There's so much more that I can't even capture in words.

This is what I mean about this show...so many layers of "what's going on here?" I've watched the whole 1st season (available on Netflix...also on CBS Sunday nights) and I cried during the last episode; the story was good, but I cried because it was ending. My favorite part of this show is the evolution. From the point of meeting Dexter in the 1st episode to the way the last episode ends, there's been so much change in this scenario that the show is really about Dexter adapting (sometimes not gracefully...he does kill people) to these changing relationships but driven at the core by his psychopathy. I know...I sound crazy for watching. But I love this show. More disturbing, I have sympathy and like (possibly love) for Dexter himself. He's just your average good-guy with a dicey secret. Okay, okay...he kills people.
You've got till the fall to catch up on this one.

Survivor Micronesia: Fans vs. Faves

Well frick.

Gladdened by the end of the WGA strike but still woefully aware of its reality by the number of new shows on recently (um...that would be ZERO), CBS wooed me by putting on a new Survivor season. I couldn't help myself...just pleading for something that wasn't a re-run I gave it a shot...and now, of course, I'm hooked.

This is the 16th (yes...16th...which means this show actually started when college was a recent memory for me) season and I was certain it had absolutely nothing to offer me. I watched the first couple seasons (I witnessed the wonder that was Richard Hatch and watched Sue Hawk give the now famous "The Snake and the Rat" speech) but I grew weary of what was just new and inventive ways of being evil and back-biting. Then of course, Mark Burnett and his production crew threw in a couple of really wretched seasons (remember the racially divided season? What about the all-stars?...BIGOTED and BORING, respectively) AND magically launched the career of arch-conservative and The View ruiner Elizabeth Hasselbeck, cumulatively making me think I'd never go back.

But television writers' strikes do weird things to one's soul: alas I found myself interested by this format which pits one tribe of "favorites" (those who have competed in past seasons and have been voted fan favorites) against the "fans" (new people). I'm not sure this is necessary, but by tonight's show I'd say it's working just fine.

But despite the formulaic 1-hour show, obviously so well rehearsed (by 15 other seasons) and the utter gutsiness of Jeff Probst who has absolutely no career except this show and is now a gazillionaire because of it, I still got hooked and here's how: the Newbies (Fans) go to Tribal Council tonight and it's pretty clear that there's this major alliance that's going to vote off Chet. (Who's Chet?...DETAILS ARE NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW...PAY ATTENTION.) When Jeff goes to tally the votes, sure enough, Chet gets one vote. Get's two votes. Ope...yep...Chet's gone. Then Tracy gets a vote. Then Mary. Wait...Mary....Mary's part of the huge alliance supposedly voting Chet off. Then another vote for Mary. Three votes Mary. Oh my god...what the...? Four and Five. Mary's gone and these two stupid, gulumphish men who think they're running this major alliance are sitting there like apes trying to figure out what in the name of all that is holy happened.

Chet lives to see another tribal council and I'm thinking that the Survivor I remember and somewhat respect is back. And I'll surely be sitting here next Thursday, waiting to see what the gulumphish men have to say about the transpiring of the rail thin but conventionally beautiful Mary who wore the skimpiest bikini being voted off. And slowly coming to realize that they may actually be next.

Oh Survivor...I've kinda missed you.

The Un-Amazing Race

I don't know whose fault it is, but this season's Amazing Race is so boring I want to cry. If it's my fault, then I have several theories as to what might be going on. This is the first season in a long time during which I've not been talking with at least one other person about the events of the show on a weekly basis. It's been a solitary experience and I think in that instance, the fun lessens exponentially. In fact, my friends and I used to have weekly viewing parties which made it an actual event. There's none of that now. I also think the time slot, well...to be frank, sucks. Sundays at 7pm (CST). Truthfully, I've got stuff to do at that time. I'm disappointed to admit that my interest is waning. It's at this point that I turn my glaring eye and pointing finger to CBS and the AR producers.

Like its other reality show predecessors (including Survivor and Big Brother--both also on CBS), AR seems very stale this season. The teams are cast in a fairly narrow range of stereotypes that are either mundane themselves ("Friends," "Dating Couple," "Father/Daughter") or almost too obviously stretching ("Goth Couple,""Married Lesbian Ministers). Once again, reality tv has raised it's ugly need to force interest upon the viewers. Instead of picking interesting people, they cast for the most *stereotypical* (thus predictable) pairs. It's almost like they want to predict the type of drama they'll get by "planting" these volatile (or boring) pairs in this high stress format. God forbid we, as an audience, enjoy the scenery and watch with evil joy as teams experience the kind of stress we all know comes solely and uniquely from traveling by air. Isn't that drama enough?

My last issue (for this post) sounds bratty, but I'm going to go ahead anyway: We need new places! I've been watching this show now for awhile and truthfully there's only so many times I can watch people go to Bhurkina Faso and complain that it smells. It's Africa--every day is 90 degrees and they actually have nature there--of course it smells. But, why not check out New Zealand, Australia, Southeast Asia, and those types of places? Some of my favorite episodes across 9 or 12 seasons have been the really, really "exotic" places. Agreed, I'm completely spoiled by my television so much that remote areas in Africa seem ho-hum--but AR, you've done that to me, so you have to keep delivering.

I'm not exactly sure what I'm going to do about the remainder of this season. I already feel a distance that might not be reparable. But, I'm always willing to reconsider if things seem to pick up. Honestly, now that the Christian, married, lesbian ministers are gone, I'm not sure how interesting it will get.

I Made a Mistake!

As difficult as this can be to imagine, I screwed up. Thanks to "Anonymous" (which is a pet peeve of mine--if you're gonna get nit-picky leave your effing name), it was brought to my attention that Phil Keoghan is actually a Kiwi (no, not the fruit). He's from New Zealand and not, as previously stated, Australia. Sorry Phil and to all of New Zealand and to "Anonymous."

He's still cute, dontcha think?

It Begins!

Oh man, I wait every tv season for the next installment of The Amazing Race. This show is *amazing* and here's why:

1) Teams travel all over the world and we can watch it from the comfort of our own homes. I've seen amazing things while sitting under my down blanket and munching cookies. It's the best kind of travel ever. Are there delays? Yes. Travel stress? Yes. Do I feel any of it? No...I sit and watch how crazy it looks when someone else feels it.

2) The teams. The format is such that they start with 11 2-person teams and each week (except for 3 installments) one team gets eliminated. But the teams chosen range from your "Average Joes" to "some of the weirdest freaks ever to be broadcast on prime time." This year my favorites include a 23-year old and his grandpa, 2 lesbians who are married and are ordained clergy (nothing like stacking up the interesting social factors), and a Goth couple from Kentucky (is there such a thing?). Then, of course, there are the dating couples and the "blonde bimbo" teams. Awesome.

3) Mix the above with this element of competition and things get interesting. Often the travel woes make the competition exciting and nail-biting. The best way to watch this show is to pick a team at the beginning and root for them--it keeps you invested in the competition. Oh, and if it's possible to watch with others it only ups the excitement factor. If you're totally not into the first couple episodes, don't panic. Right around the 4th leg, everybody's exhausted and people start saying incredibly mean and/or funny things to their partners. Tears start rolling and very often whining's involved. It doesn't sound fun but somehow any viewer with a soul and a travel experience gets sucked in.

4) "The editing is phenomenal." It is. It always looks like teams are rolling in to the "pit stop" right after each other, sometimes actually running to beat the team ahead of them when in actuality they were 13 hours behind. Genius.

5) Phil Keoghan. He's australian. He's hot. And he's *mysterious* in that completely "Phil" sorta way. You have to watch to understand but I'll provide some clue right here:See how cute he is?

Check it out--you won't be sorry! CBS Sunday nights at 7pm or after 60 Minutes which is almost always delayed because of football. (Tonight it started at 7:20).

It's Time to Travel

Guess what I just heard...!!!

IT RETURNS!!!

A new season starts on November 4!!! At 8pm on CBS. For those who don't know, The Amazing Race is a reality competition show in which teams travel 50,000 miles across the world. Game Strategy: Finish 1st and win $1 million.

Oh how long I've waited for the comedy, the drama, the excitement, and the stupidity that leaps forth from this show. I say it's better than Survivor. But then, you'll have to watch to see if you agree!

Social Experiments...No. Social Exploitation...Yes.

I've been annoyed in the past couple weeks at the categorization of shows like Kid Nation and Beauty and the Geek as "interesting social experiments." These are NOT social experiments; experiments have some method, a sense of ethical grounding, and an outcome of furthering our understanding of something. Let's call them as they are: Lame attempts by morally wayward television networks to play up fabricated, stressful, and often exploitative social environments in such a way that seems socially relevant. The only relevance is that the networks somehow assume that we'll take these to be as "interesting" as they do. Let's deconstruct both so that you can decide for yourself, shall we:

Kid Nation is CBS's brainchild. A show that transplants 40 kids, ranging in age from 8-15, in a deserted "Western Town" to "see what they'll do." I object on several levels, but most of all on the fact that "see what they'll do" has been obviously directed by creating a Survivor-like game that further splits the group into "tribes" who competes to see who gets to be what class for that week. The winners call the shots, while the losers basically become the slaves, cleaning the latrines and doing the other unsavory work. Lord of the Flies this is not. By virtue of "the game," the kids automatically fall into a very clear hierarchy of status, basically dictating the ways in which the winners will treat the losers. Just to add a little something extra, a town council--4 "very special" children chosen by CBS for their "leadership abilities" get to award a gold star (literally a gold block worth it's weight--$20,000--to the best kid.) So, we now must consider the rift that this individual prize can inflict on the tribes. SUMMARY: To ensure this group of kids is really rotten to each other, all of their social interactions have been dictated by an economic class structure imposed on them, which ultimately will mean kids crying and in pain on television for the whole country to watch. Well done, CBS--I didn't think we could sink any lower than the race-divided Survivor season, but I think we've achieved that here.

Not to be outdone, another fine season of Beauty and the Geek premiered last week on the CW.
As the graphic shows, this fine offering by none other than executive producer Ashton Kutcher, pairs nerdy guys (self titled) with hot-but-stupid girls. The idea is to see who can win the prize at the end by employing savvy teamwork (anytime thinking is involved, the geek's the go to guy; if the challenge involves waxing of any sort, the beauty's up to bat). Again, this is only a social experiment if we are learning something and, alas, we're actually getting stupider watching this show. More disturbing, these qualities are treated as essentials so that all the girls are assumed to be dumb, and play the role well, while the guys couldn't be more socially awkward. Watching this show makes it impossible not to laugh at and not with the boys, which makes it no better than Kid Nation. You just get the sense that somehow the boys think they'll now be cool for having been on this show--that it will change something for them socially. It doesn't. The girls still think they're disgusting.

This is my point of departure from the "social experiment" nomenclature. Nothing learned, nothing gained, and in fact, our own ideas about these social labels only become more embedded--more condoned--than ever before. What I really don't like about these shows that I feel is different from other reality-show games is that the intention is to exploit how socially unknowing these people are. It's as heartbreaking, sometimes, as watching the Average Joe finale--another great example of taking advantage of someone on tv.

And that's exactly what this is: Dangling a modest amount of money at groups of people who need something (kids who need the money for their families or guys who need the money to feel like they're socially acceptable) and then asking them to debase themselves for the whole country to laugh at...it's not cool. And it's certainly not a social experiment. I happen to be in the business of social experiments and I can tell you without doubt that this is very simply and clearly exploitation. The problem is, that word is just so hard to make look good on a commercial or on a billboard.